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Royalty and Ruin
The restoration was permanent. Through the ages the waters
have flowed on, making that portion of the valley an oasis of beauty.
The Lord Still Heals the Bitter Springs
In casting salt into the bitter spring, Elisha taught the same
spiritual lesson that the Savior gave centuries later when He declared,
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“You are the salt of the earth.”
Matthew 5:13
. Salt mingling with
the polluted spring purified its waters. When God compares His
children to salt, He is teaching them that He wants them to become
agents in saving others, that through them the world may receive the
grace that brings salvation.
The world needs to see genuine, sincere Christianity. The poison
of sin is at work at the heart of society. Cities and towns are deep in
moral corruption, suffering, and evil. People in poverty and distress
are weighed down with guilt and are dying for lack of a saving
influence. The gospel of truth is kept before them, yet they die
because those who should be a fragrance of life to them are a stench
of death. Their souls drink in bitterness because the springs are
poisoned.
Salt must be mingled with the substance to which it is added;
it must penetrate and infuse it, so that the food may be preserved.
Similarly, the saving power of the gospel reaches people through
personal association. Personal influence is a power to work with
the influence of Christ, to lift where Christ lifts, to instill correct
principles, and to halt the progress of the world’s corruption. This
influence is to uplift, to sweeten the lives of others by uniting a pure
example with faith and love.
The polluted stream at Jericho represents the life of those who are
apart from God. Sin destroys in the human soul both the desire and
the ability to know God. The whole human organism is deranged,
the mind perverted, the imagination corrupted. For lack of moral
force to overcome, the life is debased.
But to the heart that God has purified, all is changed. The Spirit
of God produces a new life in the soul, bringing the thoughts and
desires into obedience to the will of Christ and renewing the inward
being in the image of God. Weak and erring men and women show